Stop Colin Brown being Evicted

Over the past few months I have been assisting a constituent to resist a Notice to Quit served on him to evict him from his home. I have set a Crowdfunder up to raise funds to pursue a legal case on human rights grounds to halt the eviction of 67 year-old Colin Brown from his home of 27 years in Leith, Edinburgh.

We are raising funds via Crowdjustice here https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/colinbrown/

Colin’s landlord is a company called Express Investment Company Ltd. The company owned 29 residential properties as at March 2018 and is disposing of all of them. In the case of eleven tenants who have secure tenancies, their homes have been sold with the sitting tenants remaining in their homes. Notices to Quit on the remaining properties have been served and the tenants have left. Colin Brown is the last remaining tenant. He is challenging his eviction in the First Tier Tribunal at a hearing on 17 January 2020.

This crowdfunder is not concerned with this tribunal hearing but with a wider planned challenge to the Housing (Scotland) Act 1988 on the grounds that in the circumstances of this case, the legislation violates Colin Brown’s human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 8 Right to Respect for Private and Family Life and Article 1 of Protocol 1 Protection of Property).

We believe that it may not be proportionate under Article 8 to evict a tenant who is 67 years old and has lived in his home for over 27 years. We believe that it may violate Colin’s rights under Article 1 of Protocol 1 as it may be disproportionate to remove his property rights (the 27 year tenancy) in favour of a corporate landlord who by definition cannot e.g. live in the property.

Why does this matter?
This case clearly matters for Colin Brown but it could also be of wider significance to the 15% of the Scottish population who live in the private rented sector. We believe that there are elements of private tenancy law that do not adequately uphold the human right to a home, to a private and family life and to possessions because it is too easy in too many cases to evict a tenant at short notice.

What do we propose to do?
We propose to obtain an Urgent Opinion by a leading Advocate as to the likely grounds and chances of success of this action. We have already secured pro bono advice from a leading academic authority in the field of ECHR.

How much we are raising and why?
We propose to raise £10,000 to secure this Opinion and to review the options open to use once it has been given. if we then decide to proceed to litigation, we will launch a new and separate crowdfunder.

This is about the worst time of year to ask anyone to donate money but Colin faces eviction and too many other private tenants live insecure lives. Thank you for whatever support you are able to provide.

Crowdfunder here https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/colinbrown/